Guqin

A guqin lies flat on a table and nothing rests under the arm, so the height of the table and the chair fixes the angle of your right hand before you touch a string; when you try instruments in our Taipei shop, sit the way you actually sit to play. The soundboard decides most of the rest. Paulownia is the lighter, lower-density wood that speaks easily on a new instrument, which is why the entry instruments are paulownia, while fir is denser and opens slowly under years of playing, and aged fir or aged paulownia has already settled enough to start out open. Zhongni, Fuxi and Shennong are body outlines rather than tone categories, so listen first and choose the shape afterwards.